An author of note has a bit harsher view of college-age youngsters than many around a university community such as Lawrence are inclined to accept.

She is Kathy Seal, co-author of “Motivated Minds: Raising Children to Love Learning.”

In a recent USA Today article, she begins: “If you know a teenager, chances are good you have heard her say she’s working on a community service project ‘because it looks good to colleges.'”

Question: How many local college-age people involved in varying degrees of community service do you know who take that approach? They deserve more credit than Seal gives them – at least the youngsters most of us know.

Asks Seal: “Do kids ever do anything for its own sake, because it’s interesting, enjoyable or ethical? : The blame rests with our increasingly competitive society and the commercialization of the college culture that creates the harmful myth that only a few of the college ‘brands’ are ‘the best.'”

College admissions pressures are, indeed, heavy and growing. And a number of schools want to know what activities applicants might have had beyond schoolwork.

“For community service projects, many kids are visiting nursing homes or tutoring disadvantaged children not out of basic human kindness but out of self-interest,” writes Seal. “Rather than fostering their altruism, we’re teaching our kids that goodness isn’t its own reward, but that good deeds call for a material prize – a slot in a name-brand college. We’re leeching their innate humanity. : Kids won’t grow up valuing acts of altruism if our social institutions don’t encourage charity for its own sake.”

Experts, among them college advisers, insist that pursuing volunteer activities isn’t all that vital to gain college acceptance. They say they can see readily what a student applicant has done altruistically and for credit. On the other hand, even the self-promoters may have gained from their experiences and helped somebody in need even if their motivation was primarily self-interest.

We probably have a few youngsters in our region who are doing good deeds so they can influence people viewing college applications. But while the shopping process for a “brand name” school may cause some to take the wrong approach to community service, many more probably are pursuing such activities because they want to help others.

Think of the various young church groups who have taken part in so many worthwhile projects over the years and how much the needy have been helped by good deeds with good intentions. Consider how many young people who don’t even have college intentions have done so many notable things around here.

Does anyone really believe that there is a sizable number of our youngsters who don’t do good things for their own reward rather than as statistics for a dossier?

Likely not. Let’s give them more credit than Kathy Seal does.